Life shaded Blue
by Lost Down A Rabbit Hole
Summary: An AU Blue and her Raven boys try to make it through the last years of college(high school) with a little help from their own hidden dream world.


_A/N_

_I realise that most of the authors and readers on this site would be American so I feel the need to explain that I live in New Zealand and therefore would struggle to realistically set this story in any other country's schooling system. So my apologies if this all sounds a little weird but it would sound even worse if I tried to pretend I knew the first thing about American Colleges!_

_p.s. that goes for slang and spelling(we mainly follow British rules) too!_

"I have a question."

Ms Benall paused in her strict progress towards the front of the class. She was a woman to whom the words "leisurely" or "relaxed" could not be applied and in consequence, when she swivelled to face a less-than-impressed Blue, she did so with her head alone. It was for this quality that she had earned the nick-name Ms Barnowl.

"I'm sure you do Sargent. What is it this time?" Came the dull monotone of a woman that had expected more from life than a $40,000 salary at a thankless job. Blue momentarily considered pity. Momentarily.

"Well you see, I was just wondering why exactly we are being forced to learn about Parihaka for the third year in a row. I mean, I understand that it is important to learn about our history. I get that, I really do. but considering that our history spans a mere few hundred years in comparison to the thousands of years experienced by the majority of other civilisations, do you not think we could squeeze in at least something to do with the other 99% of the planet?"

"Sargent."

"Yes Ms?"

"Get out."

"Yes Ms."

Grabbing at her unopened satchel, the bright-eyed girl made for the door. The rest of her Year 12 History class either smirking, frowning or asleep. She smiled tightly at a table of entirely bent heads. They weren't missing much, her removal from class had become a daily routine.

"Now kids. Open your books to page 119 and read section 17 through to…"

The sound of Barnowl's voice was muted finally by a wall of plaster and a hall of silence as she escaped through the door, careful to cushion it's swing until she heard the slight click of closure.

"A whole two minutes and thirty eight seconds behind yesterday. You're getting slow."

Blue turned to the floor with pinched lips. The boy adorning its linoleum lengths just glinted back at her.

"A pleasure, as always, Ronan."

"All mine." Was the swift reply. She shook her head and dropped her books in his lap.

"You know one day I'll beat you out here and then you'll have to eat your words." She threatened, joining him on the ground with barely a creak of the knees.

"Impossible. I can't remember the last time I wasn't out within the first five minutes."

"That isn't something you should be proud of you know."

"I don't see you hiding your head in shame."

"Touché." She sighed.

They sat in silence for a while, disturbed only once by a bout of laughter from the room behind, followed inevitably by a shrill call for quiet. Blue was in the midst of a frankly brutal staring competition with the hospital-white light on the ceiling when Ronan spoke up again.

"It's not every class you know."

With only half her attention to spare, it was a moment before the dark-haired girl could reply.

"Not every class? What's not every class?" She felt rather than heard him turn to look at her.

"I don't get kicked out of every class." He clarified. "Just History" there was a pause "and sometimes Maths." Blue smiled and almost turned her head.

"Should I feel special?" Came her measured response as blank spots began to circle across her vision. He just snorted.

"Hardly."

"You wound me." She winced, finally squeezing her lids shut and averting her face in surrender. Blimey it hurt. She blinked rapidly for a few moments, eyes watering as sight slowly grew back. Her pain, however, was swiftly interrupted by the thrum of footsteps making their way towards the two delinquents. They weren't doing much good for her gathering migraine.

"Ronan?" Came a voice presumably connected in some way to the inconvenient passer-by.

"Adam." Was the terse reply. Blue explored her newly reborn vision, dragging it up from a pair of polished black school shoes to the usual regulation shorts, tie, and t-shirt before finally finishing at a pair of speckled blue eyes crowned by sandy locks brushed scrupulously clean. Adam huh. He seemed to her, a boy on stilts. Only she didn't know why.

"I see you've made a friend." Came words that should have been mocking, only they weren't. They smiled? In fact if anything they were almost a little shy. 'They'? blah! She shook her head. Words didn't smile, boys did. Well actually not often, but this one did. Somewhere along the line she must have fallen out of the conversation because all of a sudden he was saying her name.

"Blue, hello. Nice to meet you.

"Hel-" she paused to clear her throat. "Hello. Uh, Adam."

He reached up to muss his hair, haloed somewhat by her former tormentor.

"Not a fan of Ms Benall?" He spoke quietly. She didn't know why that surprised her.

"Nope. Shocking isn't it." She was beginning to recover.

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with us." Came a new voice. Except that it wasn't new, she'd heard it almost every weekday for the last three years. The only new part was that it was addressing her. Richard Campbell Gansey III, how on earth had she not noticed him standing at Adam's side? He smiled too, only his smile was polished. Like his shoes. They irritated her in a way that Adam's had not. Which irritated her even further because it was an irrational and silly feeling and she shouldn't be that kind of person. Mentally slapping herself she turned her attention outwards once more, only to find that he was now frowning at her. So she frowned back, but her face didn't change. Damn. She'd been the one to start it. So much for self-control!

"Something the matter?" Came a voice that she doubted had ever faced a situation in which the answer to that question could not be solved with a few hundred dollar bills. She plastered on a smile.

"Nothing at all."

"Allright then. Ronan" he turned "what was it this time?"

"Does it matter?" Was the gravelled reply.

"Always." The bell interrupted what looked to be the beginnings of yet another staring match.

"Well, nice meeting you both." She rose, shaking non-existent dust from her twisted skirt. There was a nod from Gansey and a lidded smile from Adam before she left them to their domestic.

She lay in bed that night with a pair of blue eyes stuck in hers. Lips curving shyly up high, high above her. She wanted them to speak her name, but whenever they opened, all she heard was "Does it matter?"

"Always." Gansey whispered.

"Always."


End file.
